Eleonora Roaro, “Happily Ever After”
Mixed-media installation (vintage photographs, sound by Alice Lamperti and Ismael Lô)
Unique edition | 2016–2018
“Happily Ever After” is a mixed-media installation made of sound and a collection of black and white vernacular photographs related to the Western wedding ritual, taken between the 1920s and the 1960s. In these images, every male figure has been erased with fuchsia nail polish. This ironic act of damnatio memoriae, on one hand, serves as a critique towards the institution of marriage and its standardisation, on the other it reflects on the aesthetic homogeneity of this photographic genre, highlighting the repetition of situations and poses.
The sound is a collage of television news reports related to femicides (specifically the one by Giuseppe Pellicanò, the explosion on Via Brioschi in Milan that occurred in the summer of 2016) and acts of violence against women, alternated with distorted wedding marches.
Photo nr. 0092 from the series "Happily Ever After"
Photo nr. 0049 from the series "Happily Ever After"
Photo nr. 0008 from the series "Happily Ever After"
Photo nr. 0006 from the series "Happily Ever After"
Photo nr. 0003 from the series "Happily Ever After"
Photo nr. 0014 from the series "Happily Ever After"
Photo nr. 0017 from the series "Happily Ever After"
Photo nr. 0031 from the series "Happily Ever After"
Photo nr. 0050 from the series "Happily Ever After"
